NASA is set to hold a press conference Wednesday to present brand new findings regarding exoplanets -- planets that orbit stars other than our sun.

Exoplanets have been in the news more and more in the past 20 years as brand new technology allows from deeper and more precise space exploration and study. The very first scientific detection came in 1988, but the first confirmed detection came in 1992. Since then, 3,577 exoplanets in 2,687 planetary systems and 602 multiple planetary systems have been confirmed.

Advertisement

The conference will be led by five feature speakers including: Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters; Michaël Gillon, an astronomer in Belgium at the University of Liège; Sean Carey, manager of NASA's Spitzer Science Center at Caltech/IPAC in Pasadena; Nikole Lewis, astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore; and Sara Seager, professor of planetary science and physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The conference will be held at 1 p.m. EST. Following the conference, an AMA (Ask Me Anything) will be held on Reddit with scientists able to answer any questions about exoplanets in Spanish and in English.